Rock Star Ex (7 page)

There was silence in the bus.

“Hell,” Tommy finally said.
 
“We can do it.
 
Let’s get started.”
 
The rest of them grunted in agreement.
 

“What kinds of things will get the most
attention?”
 
Devon asked.

“Right now our plan is to start with pictures,” Eve
said.
 
“Video would be even better.
 
We have to put something intimate out there
about you.
 
Something your fan base will
find interesting and want to connect with.”

“We’re also working on your blog,” Kate said.
 

“That’s right.” Eve agreed.
 
“Since we’re headed to Vegas I think it would
be awesome to blog about your craziest Vegas experiences.
 
That’s something your fans would love to read
about.
 
Posts directly from you would be
best.
 
We’ll get to that eventually.
 
We already have a ‘From The Road’ link set up
on your Web page that links to your
Tumblr
account.
 
Your site designer is also adding links to the
individual Facebook, Twitter and blog accounts we set up for you as well.
 
That way you can reach the fans as a whole,
but they can also get to know you and follow you individually.”

“We’d also like to get some video on You Tube and
hook you up with
Spotify
.
 
We’re working on having everything link to
each other so your fans can find it.
 
For
example, anything we post on
Tumblr
will also post to
your Twitter and Facebook accounts,” Kate added.

There was silence as they took it all in.
 
Devon only knew what a few of those things
were.
 
How they worked was beyond
him.
 
He could tell the others felt the
same.
 
But none of them was about to
admit to a lack of knowledge.

“What do you want first?” Devon asked Eve.
 
It was like he was seeing a whole different
person.
 
He knew she’d been into
electronics back then, which he’d thought strange for a girl.
 
Now he realized it had only been a hint of
her, the beginning.
 
The grown up Eve was
far more intelligent than he had known.
 
He couldn’t believe now that he’d imagined her as a housewife with
babies.

“I think the video should be our priority,” she
said.
 
“It would be great if we could get
something up as soon as possible.
 
Clayton
mentioned that this front lounge is also a studio that you use while traveling.
 
Does that mean you have your instruments
somewhere handy?
 
A glimpse of you
playing casually on the bus should get a pretty good response.”

“We do,” he said rising from his slouch against the
dining table.
 
“You should video this too,”
he commented, leading her towards he bunk area.
 

She followed him with no comment but a light turned
on behind him and he knew she’d taken his advice.
 
He stopped just at the end of the bunks in
front of a section on the right that looked like the end of the wall that
separated the bunks from the bathroom.

“This is where I keep my guitar,” he said into her
camera as he pushed on it. There was a click as a hidden latch released and the
panel popped smoothly out to reveal his old Yamaha.
 
Everything on the bus did double duty.
 
There were all kinds of compartments in it to
store stuff.
 
In such a tight space, not
one square inch went to waste.

He had an electric guitar he used on stage but he
preferred his acoustic one when he was working on the bus.
 
He saw recognition light Eve’s eyes.
 
It was the same one he serenaded her with once.
 
Her lips were parted slightly and he couldn’t
help noticing how soft and pink they looked.
 
She lowered the camera.

“Hey, Devon,” Tommy called.
 
“You want to do a coffee house version of
Midnight Angel
?”

“Let’s do it,” Devon called back.
 
He heard the others chime in their
willingness to play it as well.
 

“Great.
 
Can
you bring my guitar up?” Tommy asked.

He closed the compartment then pulled his guitar
strap over his head so it hung on his back.
 
Pushing at the panel on the other side of the
bus, it popped open and he pulled Tommy’s guitar from it.
 
Eve filmed him taking it out.
 
“Tommy’s guitar,” he commented.
 
“He calls it the Rainmaker.” Then he watched
as she pushed the button to stop the video.
 
She was balancing her coffee in one hand and the camera in the other,
her head bent as she fiddled with something on it.

“It’s good to see you again, Eve,” he said softly so
the others wouldn’t pick up on it.
 
He
knew she wouldn’t want to hear it.
 
It
couldn’t be helped, but it just had to be said.

Her head snapped up, eyes wide.

“That’s what I wanted to say the other night, but
you didn’t give me a chance.”

Big mistake.
 

Her eyes narrowed.
 
“I didn’t give you a chance?
 
Then
I’d say we’re even.”

“Look, Eve, things didn’t happen the way you’re
thinking.
 
It wasn’t like that.”
 
He set the bottom of Tommy’s guitar on the
floor, his hand on the neck, and leaned closer in to talk to her.

“The way I’m thinking?” she repeated.
 
Standing up straight, she stuck one foot out
to the side and said in a low hiss, “Look, Devon, the facts are the facts.
 
You left and I never heard from you again.
 
Not once.
 
It has nothing to do with
the way
I’m thinking
.”
 

He tensed.
 
It
was happening again.
 
She was misunderstanding
him.
 
“No, look, that’s not what I mean,
okay?”

“Oh, then what do you mean?”
 
She cocked her head at him and waited.

“It’s…it was hard on the road, to keep in touch with
anyone, for a lot of reasons.
 
You don’t
know what it was like.
 
I mean we were
bouncing around from place to place, driving for long periods of time and then
having to work until really late at night.
 
It was pretty much impossible to communicate.
 
Besides, you had no answering machine back
then, remember?”

She visibly puffed up.
 
“I see, so it’s my fault you couldn’t
communicate with me?”

“I’m not saying it was anyone’s fault, Eve.
 
Just that there was no way to call.”
 
He felt relieved.
 
He had finally been able to tell her, to
explain.
 
Maybe now she would
understand.
 
Well, when she calmed down at
least.

“And you couldn’t write a letter?”
  
She spoke quietly but the words dripped
acid.
 

She had him there.
 
Even though she was several inches shorter, he suddenly felt very
small.
 
He looked down and stuck a hand
in his pocket, not knowing what to say.
 
That was an even more complicated topic.

 
Her cold eyes
were on him.
 
The silence stretched on
for another moment.
 
Before he could
gather any other words to try to explain she turned and headed back up front,
her ponytail slapping him in the face as she went.

****

Half an hour later, Eve sat in the back lounge of
the bus with Kate, editing the video they’d shot.
 
Both of them had used their cameras to catch
shots from different angles.
 
Eve had
been responsible for shooting Devon and Kate had shot the rest of the band and
some close-ups of their hands as they worked their instruments.

“It’s looking really good, Kate, “ Eve said.
 

Kate was organizing and rearranging different
snippets of the video so it flowed well.
 
Her legs were curled neatly under her and her shoulder-length brown hair
hid her face as she bent over her laptop.

The whole band had sat in the front lounge with
their instruments and played a coffeehouse style version of
Midnight Angel
from the new album.
 
Playing while sitting on a bus didn’t
diminish their power one iota.
 
She’d
thought there would be a big difference from seeing them in the Staples Center.
 
But seeing them play in this casual way had
felt like a special treat.

While Kate edited the video Eve busied herself
posting pictures from her camera.
 
She’d started
with the photo of Devon leaning on the dining table to
Tumblr
,
with the caption ‘
Lead singer Devon Quinn
coming your way’
.
 
It was getting
hits already.
 

“Listen to these comments, Kate.
 
And I only posted this a couple minutes
ago.”
 
She scrolled through the feed on
her iPhone, picking some at random.
 
“ ‘He’s
hot.’, ‘How do I get backstage?’ ‘Arsenal rocks!
 
Can’t wait until you get to Denver.’
 
There’ve also been several shares.”

“That’s awesome!
 
I’d have to say we are off to a good start.”
 
Satisfaction lit her friend’s brown
eyes.
 
They’d always shared a love for
gadgets.
 
It was part of what had bonded
them in school.

“You almost done?” She couldn’t wait to see the
final video.

“Yeah, just let me take care of this one last thing…
Okay, it’s ready to go.”
 
She turned the
laptop so Eve could see and hit play.

It was perfect.
 
There they all were, looking badass but casual as they played.
 
The video transitioned smoothly from wide
shots of the whole band, to Devon, then Shane as he worked his electric drums,
and then a close up of Tommy’s fingers on the guitar, and on and on.
 
The sound quality of the video was great,
thanks to the soundproofing of the lounge area, even on Kate’s laptop.
 
The fans were going to love it.
 

She’d been glad when she and Kate had retreated to
the back lounge, closing the door so they could concentrate on their work.
 
But she was having a hard time focusing.
 
Her internal awareness of Devon was on high
frequency and she couldn’t shut it off no matter how many deep breaths she
took.
 
It was impossible to stop thinking
about what he’d said to her in the hall.
 

He’d
missed her,
he’d said.
 
In
that soft voice.
 

No matter how many times she replayed it in her mind
she could not deny the sincerity with which he’d spoken.
 
There was no denying the look on his face.
  
She hated that some little part inside of
her was jumping up and down about that.
 
And now, she could even pinpoint where he was on the bus because her
subconscious was keeping track.
 
Right
now he was sprawled out on his bunk doing something on the
iPad
there.
 
It turned out that his bunk was
right above hers, of course.
 
Of course
it was.
 
Fate had a rotten sense of
humor.

 
While
filming the video Devon had needed very little instruction.
 
He claimed he’d never been in a video before
so it was surprising how he knew how to look into the camera just right.
 
He would turn his head so that the strong
planes of his face caught the light exactly right, his voice and expression
imbued with feeling as he sang.
 

It was ridiculous, but each time he’d looked into
the camera it had felt like he was looking at her.
 
Reaching for her.
 
With his eyes.

“Eve?”

She whipped her head around.
 
The video had ended and somehow she’d been
staring out at the never-ending desert they were passing through.
 
“Um, yeah.
 
It looks good.
 
Let’s get it up on
YouTube and send it to the designer for the Web page.
 
I’ll post a link on Facebook.”